Contrary to its title, little in this likable if scattered indie actually concerns Alex (Jason Ritter), a rudderless 20-something who attempts suicide at the film’s outset. As he returns home from the hospital with bandaged wrists, his college buddies reunite to ostensibly offer support, which roughly translates to heavy drinking and reopening old wounds.
Sarah (Aubrey Plaza), a tax attorney with a secret yen to be a chef, nurses a longtime crush on banker Isaac (Max Minghella), who shows up with his much-younger girlfriend (Jane Levy). Curmudgeonly scholar Josh (Max Greenfield), who fancies himself a “truth-teller” but is in fact more of an a-hole, tumbles into bed with Sarah, as in their college days. And Siri (Maggie Grace) is facing a pregnancy scare with her boyfriend Ben (Nate Parker), a writer who peaked early with a New Yorker story and has been blocked ever since.
Zwick has a good ear for dialogue, and scenes between pairs of characters are smart and intimate — a nice match for talents like Plaza and Greenfield, who are particularly fun to watch play off each other.
It’s a testament to Ritter that his presence here makes such an impression despite the lack of interest the film has in exploring his character’s damaged psyche. Red-eyed and swathed in a “Matrix”-like rag of a sweater, he radiates a desperation for meaning that seems to hint at a wider aging-millennial affliction. But as “About Alex” moves toward its conclusion, it devolves into some plot resolutions that were a lot less predictable back in the ’80s.